Capone talks career and COWBOYS (& ALIENS) with Olivia Wilde!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I was dispatched to the picturesque region known as Missoula, Montana, for a couple of days to see and interview the primaries of a little film opening this week called COWBOYS & ALIENS. Weirdly enough, all four of the people we got to meet with were all folks I had interviewed before, but there was something just a little more fun about the setting and the movie. I don't traditionally do junket interviews outside of Chicago (this was only my second), and I don't do roundtables at all any longer, but I've been beyond eager to see COWBOYS & ALIENS since director Jon Favreau teased a little footage at last year's San Diego Comic-Con. Plus, seeing the film a week earlier than its premiere in San Diego this past Saturday meant I could free up my time to do something else at Comic-Con.

Needless to say, the trip was relaxing and the company was exceptional. Oh, and the movie is great too. The first of the four interviews I'm going to post is with the busiest woman in show business, Olivia Wilde, whom I had just met a couple months ago on the set of an indie she made with Eric Bana called BLACKBIRD. At both meetings, I was immediately struck by Wilde's poise, intelligence, clear sense of her craft, and inner geek. And, in a certain light, I can see how some people might find her drop-dead gorgeous.

In the film, she plays the mysterious Ella, who seems to know more about the identity and history of Daniel Craig's character than he does. We had a great time picking her brain about COWBOYS & ALIENS and her career path in general. Keep in mind that not all of the questions are mine, but I think you'll enjoy our conversation with Olivia Wilde…

Olivia Wilde: Hello!

[Everyone says Hello.]

Question: You had said that when you were working on TRON you found Joan of Arc to be a great archetype to use as a template. Did you find anything that was a hook for Ella like that?

OW: Interestingly enough, I sort of kept Joan of Arc a little bit and used her for Ella as well. The idea of a martyr, of a warrior being willing to sacrifice themselves for the great cause definitely held over from TRON into COWBOYS & ALIENS, and maybe I am attracted to those characters. But it was really fun doing research for this, because not only did I have ideas like that for her, but I got to do a lot of research about women of the Old West, 19th century women, whether they were prospectors, ranch hands, cowgirls, madams. It was very tough to be anyone in the Old West, but particularly women, and I loved that Ella, the character in COWBOYS & ALIENS, was unusual in that she was none of those things really from all of the classic kind of western films.

She was a gun-slinging woman who was very mysterious, because she’s wearing this prairie dress, she has no corset, she sort of doesn’t fit the look already and she’s wearing this gun. “Why is she wearing a gun?” “Why is she alone?” She can ride with the men just as good or better and she’s holding this big secret. So, I loved that she was an unusual character in this genre and I loved that she would be creating a new type of female character for this genre that young women could look up to, because certainly when I was growing up and watching westerns, I identified with the men. I wanted to be Steve McQueen, I didn’t have any women that I identified with, so I hoped that--and I still hope--that Ella can be that for young women. We kept that in mind while we were shooting, and that’s also something I thought about during TRON. So maybe that’s just my process: Joan of Arc, badass women.

[Everyone Laughs]

Question: In addition to martyrs and that sort of tone that you go for or that you reach back to, is it you that seeks out mysterious or secretive characters, or do they come to you?

OW: They come to me. I think every great character has a great secret. I think that’s the trick to creating a great character in a film. I always try to pick one secret that the person is holding. I think it makes it more interesting and layered that what you are saying is not always what you are thinking, and sometimes the secret is bigger than others. Both for TRON and COWBOYS, she's holding a big secret. I don’t know, I must seek them out in some way, although I feel very lucky that Jon Favreau came to me with this project and it was sort of a coup, because there were many highly qualified actresses who wanted this role and wanted to be a part of this project. So it came to me in a strange way, and I was really, really thrilled that it did, because I ended up feeling I was born to play this role, and it's certainly my favorite role I’ve every played.

Question: Can you talk about the strange way that it came to you?

OW: Well the script landed very mysteriously on my doorstep at midnight, and I looked outside and I though “COWBOYS & ALIENS?” And I read it in an hour and a half, and it had a letter with it that described who was involved and I thought “Wow, we’ve got the perfect storm of genius involved. We’ve got Spielberg, Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Jon Favreau, Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman,” all of these people who I really respected, and I read it and found it so unpredictable and so interesting. The movie takes this turn at a certain point, and my character in particular takes a big turn, and there’s this very sort of shocking and interesting climactic moment.

So I was fascinated and then I met with Jon, and he had seen me in a movie that was not very successful, but that his children really liked called YEAR ONE with Jack Black, and they had been playing it incessantly in their hotel room in Hawaii, and he kept seeing it and in the background he would notice there was a strange Princess of Sodom, that was me. And he sort of found something intriguing about me I suppose, and that’s what got me in the room. So you never know in films what will lead to what, but I feel that it was all meant to be, and it brought me here and in the end I think I was the right person for the job I hope and I worked very hard.

Capone: Without ruining anything, when you got the script you did not know the turn that your character was going to take?

OW: No.

Capone: So when you got to that point, what did you do?

OW: I was like, “What? She what? Huh? Okay, good!” [Laughs] That’s without giving anything away, it was a little bit scary for a moment. I was like “No, she can’t… oh… Oh that’s good.” But I thought “How cool.” It’s great, she sort of saunters into the film in a very unassuming way. She’s trying to fade into the background, because she doesn’t want to draw any attention to herself. She’s got a very specific mission and in that very classic western way she is the person in the shadows who then steps into the light and is ready to throw down. But then she becomes much more active in the story, and I loved how humble she was about the whole thing. I think she’s a very zen-like character. I really like her.

Capone: When there is a high-profile female character in a western, she usually ends up being a romantic interest, and Ella absolutely steps away from that to the point where the only reason you [and Daniel Craig] even kiss once is purely to clear his mind.

OW: Right, it’s for a very specific purpose. Yeah, nothing about this movie is typical, and it would have been too typical to have it be about the romance. Even when Ella first meets Jake in that bar, it’s a seduction scene of sorts, but she’s not looking to seduce him into bringing him into her bed; she’s trying to glean information from him. He is the secret she has been looking for, and she is desperate to get inside his memory and she knows that she is going to have to keep him there and she can’t believe her luck that he landed right there. She’s been searching through the west, through these towns, to find some clue as to where these aliens are, and she finds Jake, and he’s wearing this bracelet or “blaster.” [Craig] hates when I call it a bracelet.

[Everyone Laughs]

Question: Blaster sounds butch.

OW: [Laughs] Exactly! I just love that scene, and we worked on it for a long time in preproduction. We really had fun in the writing process, which was very collaborative, which was kind of thrilling for me to sit with these people and collaborate. But we sat there going over that scene and taking out more and more dialogue, because we thought, “No, it’s all going to be in the looks,” and there’s nothing like looking into Daniel Craig’s eyes. It was pretty amazing and I think that this scene ends up being so charged, because not much is said, and she’s not just trying to sleep with him and he’s not trying to sleep with her; they both have their missions, and she knows what she needs to do to make him stay, which is smack him on the head.

Question: It’s interesting that you put it in those terms, because she does sort of mimic no female characters or the archetypal female characters in westerns, and she also mirrors kind of “The Man with No Name.”

OW: Exactly.

Question: She is as silent as Jake and as mysterious. Do you think that that will play into what you were saying earlier about hoping it becomes a role model?

OW: I hope so, yeah. I think it proves that those roles can be women, that it doesn’t have to fit into the usual molds. I think that something like Bond is a good example. We think of Bond as being a man, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t be a woman. I think someone just has to do it and I think maybe that’s what Angelina [Jolie] did with SALT. Maybe it will happen in the future, but it takes someone actually taking a risk and creating that character that’s usually inhabited by men to prove that it can be a woman as well.

Question: In this film you are shooting with James Bond, you are shooting with Indiana Jones, and Han Solo, which is a great combo pack, I mean are you actively looking for something where it’s a character you could play in a variety of films, and there be some gentlemen actors sitting with us talking about how they really refine your journey, and it wasn’t just a conventional romance and they added a lot to the arch of your heroic character?

OW: Absolutely, I’m looking for that.

Question: Okay, well played. Good.

OW: I think so. I think we are making our way. I think we are making great strides in this business in terms of having female characters take on those roles, and I think yeah hopefully in the future it will be the other way around or at least a more even playing field.

Question: But you are also kind of getting this amazing reputation as being the possible next big science-fiction leading lady.

OW: That’s nice.

Question: You’ve been in COWBOYS & ALIENS and had a massive role in TRON. Are there any parts that you want to see in science fiction specifically that you would like to tackle?

OW: Oh, gosh. I grew up as a trekkie which is really funny, I think STAR TREK there are always great female roles, but I think there’s no reason the captain shouldn’t be a woman. I think we could do Captain Kirk as a woman. [Laughs] I’m really glad they are doing ALIEN again, because ALIEN had a huge effect on me as an actress, and Sigourney is someone I look up to very much, so I think that’s really cool that that’s happening and hopefully that will continue to happen.

I think there are some great sci-fi films in the works that have some really interesting female roles. I think it takes people really taking risks and understanding that the public will go see a movie starring a woman. There’s this strange idea that the public wont go see female-driven movies, that they wont pay as much money for it. I don’t think that’s true, I think they will and I think Sigourney proved that and I think similarly in comedy, Kristen Wiig has just proven that. So I feel like we are moving forward, and hopefully I’ll get to do more sci-fi roles and kind of take on more of the burden on my shoulders in terms of playing the lead as opposed to just the wise, helpful female sidekick.

Question: Can you talk about some of the practical action and effects, like doing the scene on horseback and getting lassoed.

OW: Yes, it was wild. Wow, that moment was crazy and we did it about 12 times. The great thing about this movie is we really were working with practical sets. The only blue screens were really [in scenes involving] the aliens, which as you know since you’ve seen the movie, it’s the secondary element. Really, it’s about the western world and we were actually riding, galloping across these deserts into canyons and shooting guns in these dusty towns, dealing with the elements, which is the challenge of actually working out in the open. We'd be in the middle of a scene and a hurricane would be approaching or a mini tornado or lightning. We had a lightning meter on set that was always going off and we would be deciding how close we could push it to extreme danger. Or flash floods.

And that's made it exciting. That was part of what made westerns so interesting as a genre when they were born, it was people taking cameras outside, and they were pioneers really. They were taking a huge risk and they were learning about new ways to position the cameras to capture action. If you think of a movie like STAGECOACH and what they were able to shoot there. I thought it was really exciting that we were out there taking a risk or taking these big cameras out into the middle of nowhere with a bunch of horses and guns and just kind of hoping it all worked out. [Laughs]

My favorite sound was galloping on a horse next to Daniel in between two cranes, and I had my feet out of the stirrups and my hands very loosely on the reigns, because I had a bungee cord attached to my back that--at one point unbeknownst to me--would be yanked back, and I would be pulled 40 feet into the air as though I had been lassoed by an alien. It was wild, because they were originally going to do it with a stunt double, and I sort of looked at it and I thought “That looks really fun. Can I try it?” I always make friends with the stunt team, they are always the coolest people on set. And Tommy Harper, who was our stunt coordinator, went to Favreau and said, “I think she can do it.”

So they rigged me up, and everybody is sitting there biting their nails like, “Oh my God, what are we doing?” I did it and then I did it 11 more times, and it was so wild, because once I was up there I had to stay up there waiting for them to reset. So I was floating 40 feet above this set and I could see for miles. I could see the mountains and the canyons and the deserts and then our little film crew down there, and I thought, “How wild that we are out here doing this.” Then they would bring me down, and we would do it all over again. It was really a thrill to be trusted by this team to do those things.

Question: Not to imply vanity or anything like that, but at the same time you are human. I mean day two, day five, day 14, day 19 of wearing the same goddamn dress and no makeup and being vaguely filthy, did that start to wear a little bit?

OW: It was so much better than a rubber suit.

[Everyone Laughs]

OW: I would rather wear a little cotton prairie dress than that suit any day. It was kind of wild not to be wearing a lot of makeup too and to have my hair just kind of down and simple I though was kind cool too. It also sets Ella apart from the classic western female, and I had a lot of fun with that just kind of being very bare. I look like me more in this movie than I do in any other, which was sort of interesting. But it was also a challenge riding the horse in the big skirt with the gun. I had this giant bruise on my hip bone from the gun slamming against my hip, but I didn’t want to complain, because no one else was complaining about bruises on their hips. So I sort of limped along and held my head up high, but it was really cool to learn how to do all of those things.

And I loved the look of Ella. They didn’t put me in a corset, which was really nice of them. Mary Zophres was our costume designer; she does the Coen Brothers' movies, she did TRUE GRIT as well. She is amazing and she knows a lot about westerns and she was very true to the actual, historical, accurate clothing, and I think that’s a really good look for everyone. I think the guys have never looked better, I loved those vests. I thought the watches and the vests and the pants and the chaps, definitely the chaps, but I really appreciated not having to wear a corset, which was sort of unusual and sort of inaccurate, which was great for Ella. And you all know the secret to Ella, but she didn’t bother with the corset; she’s not really concerned with that, and I thought, “How great that our producers aren’t concerned with adding and voluptuousness to me. They would allow me just to look like little old me,” and it was great. It was much easier to wear than anything I’ve worn in the past.

Question: As a movie-style follow up though, were you disappointed when, after TRON, angled bangs did not take off?

OW: What do you mean? Yes they have! I have them!

[Everyone Laughs]

OW: It was kind of wild to see how the TRON aesthetic did take off though. We started seeing it in a lot of different places--on runways and certainly in some hairstyles. You know Kanye [West borrowed the look]; that was wild, I was like “Whoa.” Black Eyed Peas. TRON has always had that effect on people--look at Daft Punk. It resonates with pop culture, and so I think its kind of cool, I wonder if that will happen with westerns. I think that the western look sort of comes back into fashion every once in a while. It sort of is right now and it’s kind of perfect timing for us. A little fringe never hurts. I think it’s a good look and its something sort of uniquely American, which was certainly an exciting thing about this movie.

It felt like a rite of passage for an American actor to play in a western, because when I came up as an actress I sort of thought… I loved westerns growing up and I mourned the end of the genre and I thought “Wow, how weird that I will never get to do that. That’s something that is in the past. I might get to do an Elizabethan drama, we still make those, but we don’t do westerns,” and that’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I’m really happy that they decided to start making them again, and I hope this inspires other people to do it.

Question: Though you didn’t go into it in the film, did you guys spend time talking about the backstory of the secret?

OW: Yes, oh yes, pages and pages, I do. I always do that for my characters, particularly the ones that have these mysterious pasts that are never really fleshed out in the script. In order to give a good performance, I think you have to be very sure of where you have been and what you have been through, so I do have a clear idea of what happened to Ella and her family, and I would really love the opportunity to do a sequel for this movie, because we all worked so hard on these characters that I think there’s a lot of story there to explore and I know that our creative team has gotten excited about that idea too, and Spielberg has some cool ideas for it. So we’ll see; it’s up to the people.

Question: Since you have acted in kind of every medium, some actors talk about different skill sets for being on stage, for being on television, or being on the screen. I was hoping you could talk about that in the context as well of the fact that, like in a high school drama department, you don’t learn to ride horses or get pulled off of a horse on a bungee cord.

OW: I know, worthless training. [Laughs]

Question: Did you have any experience that helped you do those things, or did you just strap in and do it?

OW: I was lucky, I’ve been riding my whole life. That was the real lucky thing. That’s probably how I got the part. I think that life is the best training for these types of movies and being fearless. I think if you are a good actor it means that you have been observing humanity pretty closely your whole life, and I think being through more experiences helps you better depict different types of experiences.

The interesting this is that my recent education in green screen through TRON and a little bit with COWBOYS, certainly the stuff at the end of the movie we were shooting inside a Universal soundstage with some blue screen. I used my theater training for that, because when you are staring at a piece of pink tape, and its supposed to be an alien ship, you can really create anything you want for your imagination to take off to achieve any emotional state. You can project whatever you need to. It’s almost better than having something built there for you, and the great thing is if there is a scene with three actors, each after can have something completely different in mind, and I find that to be very close to my theater training. So, it does all help in the end even though doing THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST senior year of high school wouldn’t seem to be helpful doing TRON: LEGACY or COWBOYS & ALIENS, it actually all comes together. It was good experience and good training.

i'm sure she's a great actress (seems to be) and an amazing person all around, but yes, she is also incredibly flawless. almost to the point of BEING HARD TO LOOK AT. yup. so beautiful she is on that razor's edge of being so perfect there is almost something wrong and ugly about it. luckily, she is right on the better edge of it, perpetually.
i have to stop typing now.

So what you guys are saying is that you are not a big fan of pics. Actually, this was a roundtable interview; no cameras. And by the way, until I start seeing pics of you guys, none of you exist either.

she's totally what someone would 'design' as an ideal..
but as a (partially?) native american woman in the wild west, i don't buy it, but that's not going to stop me from pretending for two hours.
and i think that utter perfection is going to make it difficult for her to play generic characters in movies.
but i'll still watch them :/

Only wanting pics without really reading anything.
I agree that she's almost "too hot" but I would marry her in a second.
The shame of it all is she may be a really good actress and an intelligent/fascinating person, but it's gonna take years if ever for most of us to realize that because she is so hot, it's distracting and I'm sure she fights with this problem everyday.
Granted, sounds like a problem I'd be OK with having :)

In fact, I didn't get the fanboy crush on her until I saw her in the extras of Tron Legacy with no makeup, practicing the fight scenes, or the bits with her messing around the set. She seems so down to earth.

The woman is babealicious, no question about it. As Zombot noted above, if I had TRON-like powers to create a perfect looking woman, the end result would probably come close to someone like Wilde.
Then again, creating Raquel Welch in a skin tight FANTASTIC VOYAGE swimsuit wouldn't be too bad either!
That said, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the movie, but I have to say I've been losing interest more and more. Enthusiasm was high at first, but every new thing that I've seen from it has actually left me cooler and colder. I don't know why, but I'm already beginning to suspect that it'll be the kind of movie where I'll come out shrugging my shoulders and saying "Meh, I guess it was okay. But JUST okay."
Best movie of the summer so far: I didn't think they'd pull it off, but they did. As of right now, I'd vote for CAPTAIN AMERICA. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it -- in fact, I'm going back to see it tomorrow yet again!

drilled this olivia chick in the ass back in the day. i was the captain of the football team, and she was some loser drama team bitch. long story short, i gotz uber drunk one night, and she let me drill her cornhole for brown gold. i now run a very successful dry cleaning business and am in talks to buy a combination mini-golf/batting cage family activity center. i owe it all to buttfucking this one girl...

opens their trap and waxes pseudo-philosophical about everything and anything pertaining to their silly roles it just takes whatever wide eyed sense of disbelief I afford these pictures and punts it right out the window. I don't care one bit about these spoiled prima donnas "personal insights" into what deep meaning they've attached to these fictional characters or how they apply personal experiences into the role. STFU and look hot sex object. Personal observation: You could grate cheese on them protruding rigid jawbones of hers. Am I right?

Yeah, you can blow all the smoke you want, you aren't bullshitting anyone (not even yourself) as to the true reason why you were so stricken. The same goddamn reason anyone posting in this talkback would be, even the ones who are going to run her down to keep up the gimmick posting facades.

Being a White Sox fan and thus making frequent trips to The Cell, I can tell you there are far better looking babes and in greater numbers at the ballpark on any given day. Guess being born in the back of a limousine with "nepotism" plates has it's advantages.

But that's kinda what they do isn't it? For instance, notice how they used her hair in the "blonde" photo to cover up that man jaw of hers? Look, I'm not saying she's Kathy Griffin, just that she's not instant explode in my pants hot. Now, Hedy Lamarr on the other hand...

i remember that first trailer...showed Craig as a bad ass...teased us with Ford, showed us a little Wilde...showed us VERY little aliens.
now they are showing the shit out of the aliens, showing us corny actions scenes with craig, and flooding us with Wilde quotes that are, well, trite.
so the recent previews have made my interest wane, but the whole mixed genre still appeals to me and i'll check it out if i can.

looks just like my GF!!! no wonder i like them both! ha ha...same lips (with little teeth window showing) same angle of eyes, cheekbones and facial structure. olivia's nose is a little longer.
uncanny.

Doesn't matter how pretty Olivia Wilde is, that's just too annoying. And she is rumored to have slept her way to quite a few jobs. But that's usually the case with any actress who all of a sudden becomes some kind of "it" girl (Emma Stone).

Because every muffin bluffin movie is hyper promoted to the point of mind numbing brainwash proportions. We get trailer 1, 2a, 2b, 3... trillion! Then we get everybody associated with the picture from actor, director to caterer in an interview talking about every stage of the films production. They're on TV, web chats, magazines, newspapers, fast food products, toys, at fan conventions...etc. The super hype machine has us anticipating every release like it's going to be the end of the universe! Anybody who follows movies with the zeal I'm sure most folks in this forum do, cant help but succumb to a jaded outlook after countless times of, once having seen the heavily promoted flick, having the rug yanked out from under us and dropped square on our face. I guess living in the age of mass info outlets it's just par for the course, but I sometimes miss the quiet tranquility of the pre-internet, pre-digital TV era of mass market consumption.

Fluke??!! Average at best ? You say that based on what ? Like his films or not is your choice, but to make such a misguided statement shows the low level of your intelligence.
I actually WORKED on Made, Elf, & Zathura and have seen his process first hand. You don't know what the fuck you're talking about...the man is a damn fine director & a great guy to boot. It burns me up to see to asshole who doesn't have the talent Jon has in one finger, proclaim he's average.

She was never anything but gracious to us. She was excellent in both movies, and she was a genuine part of launching one of the biggest franchises in recent memory. And half of you fuckballs totally hung her out to dry because -- you. Don't. Know. Smurf.<P> And the talk back on this topic has the same smurfin' tone.

makes absolutely no sense at all. But I'm not surprised, considering your writing. What I do know is that you are that special, conflicted sort of narcissist who also suffers from low self-esteem, hence your incessant need to micromanage your image here and probably elsewhere. Just stay away. This is our place to vent, for good or for ill. If you are so touchy about it, fuck off and stay the fuck away.

Who the hell are you to tell US what we can say and how we can say it? Who died and made you the moral police of the Internet? You should be dropping to your knees and sucking our cocks in gratitude. Because if it wasn't for the kinds of people having a little fun here, no one would be seeing any of your Z-grade movies. And "Z-grade" is being generous given how truly CRAPTACULAR anything that leaves your word processor actually is.
Seriously, most people here could hit a Mexican restaurant and down a few tacos loaded with hot sauce and then proceed to SHIT OUT better scripts than you.
Furthermore, you're full of it. You said "Speaking of Megan Fox, I thought she was treated unfairly by the press. She was never anything but gracious to us. She was excellent in both movies, and she was a genuine part of launching one of the biggest franchises in recent memory. And half of you fuckballs totally hung her out to dry because -- you. Don't. Know. Smurf. And the talk back on this topic has the same smurfin' tone."
First of all, we didn't "hang her out to dry." We went to see the movies for the SOLE reason that she was hired -- namely, she was a hot piece of ASS. Because if you're going to actually try and tell us that she was hired for her acting skills, we'll be glad to link you to a shitload of reviews that noted just how terrible she was (and remains) as an actress.
Oh, let me guess. EVERY critic was wrong and guilty of "hanging her out to dry" TOO.
Wait, better yet -- if you want to point a finger about hanging her out to dry, why don't you speed dial Shia, since HE'S given interviews stating that it was for the best that she moved on, because of the friction between her and Michael Bay.
Hold on -- better still -- why don't you call up your director? Yeah, that sounds even more interesting. Really! Just give Bay a call, and the you can discuss how poor widdle Megan (boo hoo!) was hung out to dry by so many people, which should make for an interesting chat given that he was the one who actually wanted her out and ultimately fired her.
DOH! (Homer Simpson slap to the head). My bad again. Tell you what -- why don't you just call up your Executive Producer... you know, that guy named SPIELBERG... who TOLD Bay that he should fire Megan ON THE SPOT for being such an ungrateful loud-mouthed brat? Because even HE had grown tired and pissed off by all of the whiny comments she was continually making to the press?
Which brings up a great irony to your post. You say she was "gracious" to you, yet you're talking about the SAME woman who gave loads of interviews specifically complaining about the SHITTY SCRIPTS that the movies had. So I guess that "graciousness" only went so far...huh, Bob?
Of course, there is one positive to you showing up on a message board like this, and then shooting off your mouth. Given that your reputation for being a pompous ass proceeds you...much like the foul odor of a skunk that just shot its smell load, and now that stench wafts its way through the air and causes everyone to gag...it's nice to see that you actually ARE every bit the arrogant asshole that people say you are.
So, lecture us all you want about the things we say about Megan Fox or Olivia Wilde or any other hot chick we feel like discussing. See, we can talk this way because we have cocks that actually work -- unlike the shriveled, one inch, impotent limp stub that a troll like you has.
Really! Hang out here as long as you'd like. Because we'll all be more than happy to remind you JUST what a stupid talentless fuck you are.

Wow. Now -- as some of you know -- I'm a gay dude, but Wilde's looks are pretty much beyond reproach.
I would be remiss in my duty if I did not tell you that the idea of Wilde's firm, young body being micro-critiqued by some Dorkus Aurelius with withered flesh, sagging breasts... flabby b-b-buttocks...
Makes me want... to vomit.

I am a fan of Favreau and think he is a great talent and appears to be a great guy, but you naming Made and Zathura as two of his movies don't do a lot in the argument that he isn't a fluke as a director!

Insert Jessica Alba in FF for example
Script" "No Johnny NO! Don't!" even if he is just getting a glass of milk before bedtime.
Or 99% of any Hollywood mom. No matter what, dad gets dirty looks and shit from ex wife who expects the worlds to spin around her.
Dad comes up to front door to wifey acid face "can we just talk?" Dirty look and slam door. Repeat 5 times in every godam movie ever made.

And the round table thingy doesn't excuse you form the no-pictures deal. A real jornalist would get around to do it. Where's your chicagoan spunk, dude? I heard you guys from Chicago were crafty by nature.

As a gay man myself, I respectfully disagree. Beauty is beauty. I don't need to want to fuck a rose in order to know and appreciate its beauty.
A bunch of fat, physically lazy straight men in a room with a beautiful woman is in fact unlikely to elicit more photo shots than a room full of typical gay men. In fact, I'd bet you'd get a lot more photos from the crowd of gays than the crowd of straights.
At any rate, the point is moot since I doubt photos were allowed in that forum.

Never seen Bob Orci post that kind of garbage ever, let alone post it with a bunch of typos. Anyone can use that name and post here. What makes you think it's the Bob Orci, the writer behind NuTrek/Transformers/Etc...?

I was wondering why no one had brought that up till your post, about the perfect storm of genius. I guess Wilde is just that hot, that she distracted everyone from that otherwise ripe target for talkback comments.

I suspect it's because the trailers don't reveal much, and each new one has hardly any new material. There are probably enough things they want to keep secret and reveal when you see the movie that the trailers just can't give away all the cool stuff. That's good in a way, but makes it seem like what's in the trailers is all the movie has. I think that will prove to be untrue, just like it was with Iron Man.
That said, I don't see why there should be a lot of hype for Cowboys & Aliens, but I would still like to see it. It looks cool enough, but not like some giant blockbuster. I'll go just to see Harrison Ford in a Western, if nothing else.

You really have to be a fan of the comics. Oh what the hell, this movie will just plain stink!
The costume looks horrible, too many liberties were taken with the characters and the plot will lurch forward badly.
Here's how it will probably go down: It will basically start out with a few minutes in one place, a few minutes in another, a few more elsewhere, etc. You get the idea, and then all these separate incidents gradually and slowly lead to one single plot. MST3K's Pod People was easier to follow!
Maybe a few good things about this: Daniel Craig looks enough like Jake Lonergan should, but will be hampered by the lousy script and implausible plot. The culture shock he has returning home after too many years might be done fairly well, and the alien description reminds me of a cross between Freddie Kruger and Jason Voorhees. This movie could have been so much better set entirely in WW2 with the opening scene of Hitler screaming at his generals, "I could make that bellboy a better leader than any of you !" That is from the mythos of the comic book.
After the opening credits, we should see the process of Lonergan, becoming the hero who goes on to fight the aliens, who through most of the movie should be spoken of and referred to, but not seen. This movie will need that sort of impact, the indication of the sort of evil the Nazis represented, but as it is, it sounds like one big car wreck.

...the first time one calls you out, you try and burn him down. His accountant texted him this morning; "Congratulations; you can afford to be a tool. Go forth, and spread your assholery. Mazel Tov -Barry" (you know there is an accountant named Barry) "What can brown do for you?" Apparently make a living writing stuff and knowing what Wilde's perfume smells like.

Sorry if i insulted you with my coments. I do make a distinction between gay and faggots, though. You and Sir Ian McKellen are gays. Michael Bay is a faggot. You know what i mean? It'd all a matter of respect. I respect any gay who assumes as such. This is why you and sir Ian McKellen will always have my respect, and your sexual orientation never an issue with me at all. It'd not my business. Michael Baty, however, is a fucking faggot, and he makes movies for faggots.

which I will be shocked if it surpasses Cap's BO numbers. I personally hope it tanks and not because i have it in for ol' Bobby,(even though he can't write for shit.) but depending on the success of said film, may usher in more nonsense like Ninjas vs Pirates, Zombies vs Vampires, Aliens vs Ninjas...
..oh wait.

Yeah,the writer of the Transformers movies will have such lck with an intelligent and gorgeaus woman like Olivia Wilde. Orci can wirte a movie about such impossibilities happening in a movie, but it doesn't in real life. Sorry, Bobby boy!
As for her coments about the genious acossiated to this movie, it'sd called marketing movie sales talk. Whenever a movie is about to get released, or in release, everybody is full of praise about everybody else. The actors and filmmakers are actually legally binded to say that type of stuff. They are forced to that by their contracts, when they have to do their publicity dues. None of that the peopler who made a movie say at the time the movie was released is to be believed as true. Only later we really know what really happens onset and how people actually got along with each other. And it's always a different story.

I suspected that the media had blown that whole thing out of proportion (although even I got annoyed when she started badmouthing the director that made her).
At any rate, there's a point in Transformers 3 when Rosie Huntington-Whiteley tells off Megatron. It has absolutely no impact because the scene is obviously written for Megan Fox, who actually has a history with Megatron and has been established as a spunky, do-it-yourself kinda girl. The sudden switch to new girlfriend was jarring and didn't really work.

Megan Fox badmouthing Michael Bay is the only thing she ever did inher life that made me had any respect for her. And she said it knowing quit well she would get fired form the Transformers gig in a heartbeat. something tells me she did it deliberatly because it was the only way she could find to get off that contract and had to work with psycho boy Bay again. and she did it by just telling the truth. It was a well played hand by her.
Her career might be dead. But maybe she rathers has it then having to work again with such a psychopath fuck as Michael Bay.
And what did Bay made her into, anyway? Into a respected actress? Into a star? No, he just made her into a sex object. There's more to real stardom then just that.

this TB has been the highlight of my fucking day, and has everything a good talkback needs to entertain the professional...
1. A completely, and understandably, Stressed out Writer/Producer seemingly coming unhinged the weekend before his film opens; and whom has obviously been up far too many days in a row after raiding Michael Bays "Movie Premier Marching Powder" stash.
2. A fairly recent TB addition, in name to me at least (Starship_Captain) who saunters forth from the cowed mob and uncorks a Double Barreled Tirade of such intensity and honesty that I dare say said professional writer has met his match and thus far has wisely avoided further direct confrontation.
3. Plenty of Lewd and justified discussion of latex clad female posteriors, Casting couch rumors, and in general just some good old fashioned and good natured misogyny.
For which All involved in this production should be happy;...for if you were looking to cast for pure acting talent and believability, rather than teen boy pleasing looks, we'd be seeing any number of actresses closer to your leads age in this role. Unless of course the script specifically called for (Incredibly Hot woman half the age of our leading men), in which case...you should not be complaining about this discussion...mission accomplished.
4. The Gangs all here...I see a collection of the honored and esteemed here. Men and Women of singular talkbacking intensity, individuals perhaps more identifiable with this place than the people who run it. It is like a Talkback All Star Game...
Yes...Epic talkback...I salute you all (even you Bob)...continue on please...

I'm not a fan of Bay movies, but he made her who she was. And yes, he played up her sexiness... because she's fucking sexy. Can't blame him for that.
Fox's comments had nothing to do with right or wrong. She ran her mouth off because she's young and impulsive. Which isn't to say she deserved the shitstorm of attention from the media. In all fairness, she seems to have calmed down quite a bit, and she is probably a nice girl.
If anybody deserves media bile, it's Shia LeBeouf... who has outed every girl he's slept with and badmouthed every fucking movie in favor of the next one and makes claims he beat up Tom Hardy. That guy is a dick.

At some point, whether you earned your status on Mount Olympus or are there by someone else's good graces -you stop strolling down the mountain to duke it out in a prize fight ring filled with pig shit, just because someone doesn't like your play. At least *act* like you belong in the halls of the gods.

"I'd rather men ask why there are no statues of me then why there are." You, like many, seem troubled by the idea that i would mix it up here. I have never put myself on a pedestal. You are the one doing it.

her agent pulled her aside and told her to shut her fucking mouth while she still has a slight chance at a further career.
She has done herself no favors in that town...it's a small club and you don't want to piss off it's star members.

Adn who was Fox? A joke, even before her rants agaisnt Bayass. Nobody was taking her seriously. aseh was jsut an hardbody, the it girl of the moment, forgotten inbetwen the Trashfuckers movies. Othern the the magazine covers, who was she? A nobody. An exploited nobody. And i think she really realised it. And on top of that, having tow ork for that fuckass psycho fuck Bay two times already. and everybody knows that in a Bay movie, the girls always get the worst end of the stick. whatevetr shit the guys might suffer under his tutelage, it's far worst with the girls. He is a prick above being a filmmaker. Some filmmakers are pricks. He's a prick who's a filmmaker.
She said what she needed to say about Bay, and every word she said is true and it was worth saying. she didn't so much badmouthed the guy who made her a star, because he didn't do that to her. He badmouthed the fucking asshole who exploited her. Go girl!
I'm no fan of fox. If she drops off the face of the Earth and never makes a movie ever again, i'll not even remember her. But here's what i know: i saw her in the too much maligned JENIFFER'S BODY, adn it's a pity that wasn0't her first movie that exposed her to the public. Because in that movie she showed he can act. She's not of the level of Amanda Seinfyed, but she hold her own quite hell. She ACTAULLY ACTED, instead of what she did in the Bayfuck movies, which was nothing but posing with some dubious lines of dialogue. If anything, and in the long run, what Bay diod vor her in his Trashfucmers movies did her more harm then good. She has nothing to own him for.

you're just understandably stressed out and need a good stiff drink and a night or two of sleep...you'll be back to your old polite, teflon skinned self in no time.
Honestly..I kinda feel for ya...there is a lot riding on this with yours and Alex names affixed to the front of this instead of buried down in the credits as just writers; and you are justifiably protective of your female lead.
But dude...lets be honest...you hired the woman for more than her acting skills, which I'm sure are formidable; and she, along with her delicious, luscious, ravage inducing, hard yet supple, hot dripping sweet juicy honey pot of a body are generating EXACTLY the sexist Hype people hire her for.
And Bob...Good Luck...seriously.

"And yes, he played up her sexiness... because she's fucking sexy. Can't blame him for that."
Christopher Nolan had Johanssen and Marion Cottilard in his movies, and what he did with them? He let them act. Their beauty is a given, but he uses them for what their job is ment: to act.
The point being, Bay can't use an actor or actress other then a vehicle for stupid jokes, stupid militaristic posturing or white trash crack whore whoring pseudo-sex allure. So he can get fucked up his fucking ass for what he does with everybody who ever been in his movies. and this goes triple for how he abuses all the young women that features in his fucking movies. He can get fucked up his faggot ass, the incompetent fuck!
I ocne saw a pciture of Megan Fox before she was cast in the first Trashfuckmers movies. do you know how she actually looks like without her Trashfuckmer's whore look? She actually looks like a girl next door type. Seh evne wears glasses in real life. In real life, and before her whorification by the Bayass cunt, she had that hot librarian/girl-next-door look to her that actually make her so, so adorable. And one of her tattoos is a quote from Shakespeare, and an obscure one at that, which means she actually has a good amount of literacy to her. So yeah, there is mor ethen meet the ey to her. Not that fucking pussy ass faggot Bayass fuckfart was ever able to actually explore that in his movies.

"Megan must have despised being named sexiest woman alive."
That can only take you so far. And if it's the only thing that you are know for, it's more of a curse then a blessing. You know how many actros and actresses have had their careers fucked up because nobody took them seriously other then just their looks, even though they actually had more to offer? You think that's a laughing matter? You think that's being made for life? Think again, buddy. Being pretty is great, but not if that's the only thing people see in you.

And not because he is not some Brad Pitt pretty boy. Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield in THE SOCIAL NETWORK are not your usual classic pretty boys type and yet those guys were charismatic and talented enough to have a movie made all around them and they carried that movie easily and effortlessly, and th audience's attention was always on them with them.
It's because Shia just is not that charismatic and talent enough. All the time he has been made into a leading charactrr in a movie, it's all so artificial, so forced. shia is, in true, a character sidesshow bob actor. In that he can excel. But that's what he should ever be. He's supporting actor material, not leading man. small wonder the hype backlahs agaisnt him is so strong, so many people resent being force fed a star who's not made of the stuff that stardom is made of.

catchtheman: "I hear she's been fucking her way through Hollywood!" - Uh...source? and even if she did; who the fuck cares? If it was a guy doing that he'd be gettin props.
Stargrove: "Creepy Tranny" ??...?? Yeah, cos the chick you bang ---- oh sorry, had me a big ol' ROFL there, couldn't finish that sentence without laughing my ass off.

That is, the reputation of a hack who makes popular and successful films which sell based on the subject matter and formula rather than the horrible writing offered up by yourself and your writing partner. There's big robots hitting each other with the backdrop of tight female buns and explosions (Transformers), then there's Harrison Ford fighting aliens while wearing a different hat (Cowboys and Aliens), and Star Trek. <p>
Do you care that you are known for your utter lack of talent and soulless pursuit of money?

haha I love it. Some shitty writer named bobo_douche with a REALLY lame horror column at AICN where he reviews straight to DVD shit movies NO ONE even watches, criticizing an ultra-successful Hollywood writer. You, bobo_cunt, are a fucking JOKE.
Star Trek was one of the most successful science fiction movies of the last DECADE. Yes, it's true. It's one of the most popular Star Trek movies EVER. Do your idiotic words mean anything? Nope.

A regular viewer of a tv show is someone who wathches 3 episodes! Similarly, a talk backing hater represents about 3 percent of a regular audience. So while some of you are loud, you represent a minority of the general audience. So, for example, though critics attacked TF 2, when i travel the world, everyone i run into talks about how much they liked it. Thats just a fact. The limited reality you experiance here is not the norm.

It's called a sacrifice. where you sacrifice your own ideals and opinions so you can have an advance in the career and hopefully, all that shit being just an old shame in their pass that they can later brush off as a "i did it for the money when i was poor and unknown" thing.
You should know what's it all about selling your ass for the job, you of all people.

And you know what's even funnier? Even with all the non-existing budget, bad acting from a mostly amateur cast and poor production values, PARTS does have thematic ambitions and has the balls to take the story to it's logical conclusion. PARTS is actually a smart movie, or at least makes a damn atempt at it. THE ISLAND can only be considered smart by morons who never saw a smart movie, or a smart anything, in their whole life.

It was not a brillant script by any stretch of the imagination, but at least the stuff that happened in it did made sense, had a logical sequence, and the characters were believable for the world they lived in. In yours and your hackboy partner messy shitty script, everythignthat worked in ther original script was dumbed down and made stupid and inept and nonsensical. That was not script-doctors, you were script-undertakers. You killed that script with your usual dumbness, idioticy and lack of talent, hackboys.

When having discussions with friends about summer movies we were looking forward to, I'd always mention this one only to be received by puzzled stares. The one thing that concerned me were the writers of the film. They are just known for their mediocrity, and catering to mass appeal rather than quality. But I like the director and cast, and the subject matter sounded different.... <p>
But it currently stands at 50% on rotten tomatoes. I still plan to see it....but it seems like it will be a pleasant diversion which will be instantly forgettable.

..that for those of Fox's generation, the word "bossy" can be equated to "Hitler" without any of the holocaust, genocide, or fascism to go with it. Seems like a knee-jerk, unthinking reaction to someone he didn't bother to consider outside of his own context.
Someone who likely didn't mean it in remotely the same way that the Berg would if he compared someone to Hitler.
He's welcome to do that, of course. And not because he's a brilliant filmmaker but because he's a human with a right to his opinion as anybody else.
But I find the quick firing from T3 and the media coals she was raked over entirely unjustified given how quickly anybody under the age of 30 will call anybody "Hitler" who's even remotely "bossy" or "dickish".
It doesn't mean that they're anti-Semitic or careless of the plight of holocaust victims.
It just means that their language has evolved right before our eyes and we cannot use old understandings of language to interpret those that would mold it to their own use today.

I thak you for your kind words. I'm not the knight in shiny armour you claimed above. i'm very much a dude. I'm the kind of guy who thinks all movies that has at least two beautiful women in it, there should be a lesbian sex scene between them. In many regards, i'm as deplorable as most of the other dudes in here.
But there's shit that evne i can 't abide, adn there's sexism shit that i just thing it simply should exist in today's world.
But my biggest battle is against rampant placidity toward the dumbing down of movies. In my view, no movie should be dumb by design. And untalented hackboy filmmakers shoudl be given hundred of millions of dollars to make their dumb crap. Guys like Orci should have stayed making Tv shiows like Xena. He never raised above the Xena level, it's only the budgets for the crap he writes that have grown.
Many people in here have fallen to their knees when orci first showed up. including people who used to be his detractors. but the holywood big shot showed up, and they became complete star-struck. Not me. Some of the people in here stood by what we preach.
I'm no paradogn of virtue, but i try my best to be truthful. I owe it not just to my self but to everybody else. I wouldn't want it any other way. There's too much cynicism in our real life, i want to have this part of my life, where i participate in this talkbacks and where i get to be in the online company of my fellow geeks, i want to as pure and real as i can be. This is the place where i can have the oportunity to be myself as i am. Through the subject of movies and all that's related.

;)
Good luck with the film -because, let's be real, not a lot of folk rollin' the dice with "daring" projects.
Make sure you sterolize after you log-off AICN... don't want to let that stay on you; it might lead to infection or an itchy rash.

Thr views and opinions expressed by AICN Talkbacking boborci don bot necessarily represent the views of Roberto Orci. Any similarities to a real person, living or dead, are coincidental, and the language and views expressed are for entertainment purposes only. Only on this site would i ever to tell some of you to go fuck yourselves. So please do.

I'm talking about the despise and disrespect that Bobby and company showed to the very franchise they are supposed to be honouring about with their own movie.
Say, imagine i make a Star Wars movie and in the middle of the show i just kill Luke Spywalker or Hans Solo, of blow up the Milenium Falcon, just for ther sake of a cheap shock thrill. How would you like them apples then?

matters, that he receives only praise heaped upon him across the globe, and that web post-ers and talkbackers are insignificant. Well no shit no one calls him out to his face; who would be that much of a cunt? That's the point of these anonymous boards: to vent.
So why does he keep coming back if our rants are piffle, in his estimation? Why does he try to intimidate away negative assessments of his work? Why does he seem so butthurt? And why so ungracious now, calling regulars "fuckball"?

They successfully resurrected it. After the atrocities that were Voyager and Enterpise, it's amazing you think the latest movie was the worst offense. I'll never understand that about you, no matter how much bile you spew. There are more important things to rant about in life.